In
2016 we celebrated our 30th year in business! Join us in a trip
down memory lane as we look back on the last 30 years, and then
some! We've added entire pages of content to our scrapbook in
celebration of our past 30 years, so if it's been a while since
you've looked through it, you haven't seen the scrapbook!
Over a quarter century old! My how time fly's! As you can
imagine, these pages are all photos! Be patient, it's
worth the trip! If you get an "X" instead of a photo,
simply hit "refresh" on your browser and it should reload the
page at a much faster rate, with the missing photos.

The 70's

The 80's is where WCSL starts, but first we must go back to the
70's to see the foundation that would become WCSL. It's been
said that you really can't understand where your going unless
you understand where you've been.

TIMELINE 1972

Founder Paul Doty's first interest as a child is in anything
fast or high tech. In the 60's those worlds met in NHRA drag
racing. These two photos are of the original Snake and Mongoose
top fuel dragsters in 1972 taken by Paul in Freemont. This is
actually what the pits looked like in those days. 25 years later
Paul would go to work doing sound for TNN's and ESPN's
television coverage of NHRA drag racing. The autograph below is
an original Don "The Snake" Prudhomme from 1972.

TIMELINE 1977

Paul's collection of sound equipment started during his high
school years. Needless to say his room showed signs of what was
to come. Much of his hi-fi gear he built himself. A talent for
electronics that would eventually get him hired at another
California sound company as a systems designer and sound
engineer.

Paul also dabbled with personal computers during this time. It
doesn't seem noteworthy in this day and age, but at that time,
they simply didn't exist. Back in those day's if you wanted a
computer, you had to build one. Paul purchased one of the first
commercially available machines in the late 70's and began
learning how to program software for it. Today Paul oversees the
website for the company as well as maintaining and designing the
companies network infrastructure.

TIMELINE 1978

Paul's
first house mix. A borrowed 12 channel Peavey board with a
Pioneer reel to reel engineered to work as a delay line. Paul is
introduced to live sound engineering and spends one year as
soundman for the local Modesto band "Saloon".

In a years time Paul meets everyone in the who's who of the
local Modesto music scene and works in literally all of
Modesto's night clubs. Paul's second full time sound gig was as
the only church sound man for a small church of about 40 members
starting out in Modesto called "Big Valley Grace Community
Church." The church PA was a 4 channel Bogan.

Our first lighting system. Yep that's local sound engineer Dave
Abbey at the big controls. First lighting truss circa 1978 was
built out of....well mostly junk. No idea whatever happened to
this system.

In those days we didn't have allot of the manufactures we have
today and you had to manufacture allot of your own gear. Our
second attempt at a lighting controller. I have to admit it's
getting better.

In the late 70's the music scene in Modesto was a booming
fertile incubator that would later form it's largest production
company West Coast Sound & Light.

A multitude of concert venues like The Turlock Fairgrounds, The
Sports Page, Dazzles Underground, Central Park, Carmen's, The
California Ballroom, The Fable Room, The Forum, The Downtown
Arena, The Brickworks, The Oasis Ballroom, The Playhouse, The
Electric Sound Company, Stage-1, The Vintage, The Sylvan Club,
and The Club in Turlock flourished. Area promotion companies like
Guiding Light Productions, Rocking Chair Productions, and Bill
Gram became legendary.

In those days a band could actually make a good living playing
every week, and in some cases every night. Bands like Saloon,
Rock Bottom, Destiny, Hari Kari, Tiny Nailer, Collage, The Milk
House Boys, Raven, 415, Silvermoon, Hot L Sacto & Taxx were the
main stays of the areas music scene, but none as prolific and
successful as The Lights.

The WCSL story really starts in the late seventies with Paul's
post high school band days with many of Modesto's notable
groups. Most notable was a five year period from 1979-1984 as
Paul served as sound engineer for one of the countries earliest
Christian progressive hard rock bands AthanasiA. More on that in
the 80's.

The 80's

TIMELINE 1980

In 1980 Paul began selling off stereo equipment and investing
the money into sound equipment for the band "Destiny". Destiny
would become the foundation of "AthanasiA". Paul and future wife
Leslie would meet in the Destiny days, but would not begin
dating until 81 at the start of the AthanasiA era. It was during
this time that Paul & future WCSL partner Chris Gray (2nd from
right in photo) would meet.

In 1980 Paul uses his electronics background and goes to work
for Sound Visual Products in Jamestown California as a systems
designer, builder, & engineer after owner Jerry Chapelli buys a
compressor that Paul built. Paul would work for SVP on and off
for about 5 years.

Special thanks to Ed Woodruff (Right in photo) for finding the
old Destiny photo.

A fun shot of FOH from the Destiny days features an Echoplex
tape echo for FX.

The venture grew Paul's PA gear to the point of the band
providing PA for a number of events and festivals the band
played at. The earliest notable person we worked with through
that era was Richard Kiel who played "Jaws" in many of the bond
films of that time.

TIMELINE 1981

Our second house mix. This picture was recently found by Shawn
Gray and donated to the scrapbook. It was taken at her high
school graduation party sometime around the summer of 1981. The
console is a TOA (more on it below). The control rack not only
contains the front of house equipment, but all the PA and
monitor amps as well (all two of them.). The show was evidently
being recorded by a BIC T4 cassette deck being fed by the house
mix in one channel, and a Shure SM58 mic plugged into the other.
I'm sure it was our highest quality mic at the time. Rack from
top to bottom: Furman spring reverb (way before digital), Ibanez
two rack space analog delay line (This was state of the art in
its day, most people were still using tape delays like the
Roland Space Echo and the Echoplex), 12 bands of EQ on mains and
monitor, a Furman mono 3 way crossover, and two stereo ADCOM GFA
400 power amps for mains and monitors (200watts per side, a
large amp for it's day).

Paul graduates the Recording Institute of America with a
certification in modern recording techniques. Also in 81, Paul
meets future wife Leslie Mace, a local lighting designer.

TIMELINE 1982

Paul at the controls of his first "owned" console (purchased
late 70's/ early 80's), a 12 channel TOA. The console had both
treble and bass. ooooooooo! Photo taken in 1982.

AthanasiA circa 1982

TIMELINE 1983

Our 3rd console. In 83 it was up to 24channels. This had to be
accomplished by strapping two 12 channel EV boards together. It
was through these early days of innovation that Paul adopted the
slogan... " I've done so much with so little for so long, I can
now do literally anything with nothing at all.".

In 1983 Paul & Leslie wed. Paul is using his audio knowledge
working for the Federated Group selling Hi Fi.

TIMELINE 1984

In 1984 Paul, Chris & Leslie all worked for HIWATT amplifiers
building the HIWATT 30watt combo. Paul assembled electronics,
Chris did the vinyling, and Leslie loaded circuit boards. We
found one of our combos in the vintage section of a Gig magazine
in 1998. Wow. Guess that makes us old timers now! Wonder if that
unit still has Paul's signature in the back?

TIMELINE 1985

Paul puts his studio engineering training into use as an
engineer for Fred Eichle's local studio Villa Recorders. During
the late 70's and early 80's the studio was a popular
underground hang out for numerous national acts including the
likes of Peter Frampton, Edgar Winter, and future WCSL clients
like Toto's Bobby Kimball.

Left photo is a pre-WCSL photo taken during Paul's stint as head
engineer at Villa Recorders in Modesto Circa 1985. The console
was Paul's 4th, purchased in 1984. A 24ch. English Adam Hall
console. Leslie hand wired the patch bay for it with well over
1000 solder points. This photo was recently found and donated by
Mike of "Home Grown" and was taken during the recording of their
album. Thank you Mike!

Paul & Leslie maintain a strong personal & business friendship
with Fred to this day.

Durring this time Paul engineers the AthanasiA album "Time
Lost". The album tracks are archived here below.

TIMELINE 1986

Paul & Leslie provide sound for Easter Sunrise Services at
Lakewood Memorial Park in Modesto. This would be the first
official then "West Coast Sound" event, although the company
still had no official name. Shortly after that, Paul Doty &
Chris Gray partner and form a game plan for a Modesto based
sound company. A few months later, Ashley Doty is born! Partners
Chris Gray and Paul Doty move their two budding families into a
single home to share expenses, pool all their resources and
money, and.......

West Coast Sound is born!

The early years are filled with club dates and local bands. Soon
promoters are calling on the company for national acts.

Owners Paul Doty & Chris Gray mixing on the Adam Hall 24. Note
the additional 24ch. console in the background, strapped to the
Adam Hall to provide more inputs. Even though it was a house
console, it was used as an early onstage monitor mix before
commercial ones were readily affordable.

Early modes of WCSL transportation. By the way, the truck was
borrowed.

PA technology through the years. At left, West Coast Sound's
very first PA.
Circa 1986.
Boxes later became firewood.

TIMELINE 1987

WCSL's first REAL PA. A 10,000 watt Crest powered PA that took
us through many years and saw many national acts in the early
days of the company. 2 year old future entertainment industry
makeup artist Ashley Doty (Now Ashley Joy Beck) on left. Picture
circa 1988. A couple of the boxes were still in use as late as
2000. The last of the boxes were sold off at the end of 2004.

Sound can be a dangerous business. New Years night, 1987. A
bullet whizzes through the truck roof at the San Jose Civic
Center, lodging in the empty trucks floor. Glad we weren't
loading at the time.

That would have been a headache.

Shawn
Gray pulls this gem out of the vaults for the 25th anniversary
of WCSL. I think it represented just about every piece of
equipment we had in the beginning, including Mouse...The Wonder
Dog!

TIMELINE 1988

The start of the Bloodgood era.

A mutual record industry friend introduces Paul to Les Carlson,
the lead vocalist of Bloodgood. In the 80's, the three biggest
Christian metal acts in the world were Stryper, Bloodgood, &
Barren Cross. Paul would serve as FOH engineer for two of them.

The shot on far left was taken at Paul's very first show as
front of house engineer for Bloodgood. The relationship would
last well over a decade until the band disbanded.

Bloodgood would reform again in 2007, and Paul maintains a close
relationship with the project today. In 2010 it was announced
that Bloodgood would be inducted into the Christian Music hall of
fame in recognition of their contributions to the Christian
Music Industry.

The "Good 'ol Days!" When Paul took over as Engineer for
Bloodgood, the band was still hand patching the system together
every night.

The first change in the tour was the construction of a lot of
patching looms!

The Odem Sports Arena, Chicago IL. 1988. Paul's first arena show
ever as a front of house engineer.

Ashley takes to the road on her first multi month tour at age
two.

Photo was taken at a stop in Yellowstone.

Photo's from the Chicago Cornerstone Festival in 1988. Paul's
first time engineering FOH at a large scale outdoor festival on
a large scale concert system. When we left on tour the album
"Detonation" Bloodgood's second album had just been released.
The band was starting to catch on. While on the road we had no
idea of what was happening across the country with the bands
popularity. When we arrived in Chicago in July of 88 we were
pumped about the prospect of opening Christian music's largest
festival for one of Christian music's largest bands of the time,
Degarmo & Key. It wasn't until soundcheck that we realized we
weren't opening for Degarmo & Key, they were opening for us.

Footnote: 12 years later we found a bootleg CD of the show
circulating on the internet. Talk about stepping into a time
machine!

WCSL opens the Modesto Centre Plaza with Bob Hope.

Mr. Hope starts WCSL's autograph collection with this photo.

An original Grand Opening ticket from the MTV dance party is
seen below..

An article appears in Pro Sound News the following month
featuring the grand opening of the Plaza and highlights a WCSL
PA system for the first time. Pro Sound News now knows who we
are.....we are somebody!

Above photos are from the MTV grand opening event at the Modesto Centre
Plaza.
The first shows our fifth console, a Yamaha 2404. The next
picture is a shot of the very first time the new STS PA was used
at an event. The last photo is of a young LD by the name of
Leslie Doty.

In the late 80's a large earthquake rocks Northern California
and WCSL rocks back by raising the funds needed to rebuild a
town hard hit along with the help of Budweiser and numerous
bands.

The remainder of the 80's saw the new business grow and develop.
The years were spent raising young children, touring, and
working long hours in smoke filled night clubs, trying to keep
our heads above water.

TIMELINE 1989

Touring continued throughout 1989 with bands like Bloodgood,
barren Cross & country artists Shenandoah. These YouTube
videos were recorded at Cornerstone on the 1989 Rock In A Hard
Place Tour. Also in 89 Paul & Leslie travel to Seattle to
work on the classic live Bloodgood video, now available on DVD.